FAMILY doctors are ready to bring the NHS to a standstill with their first industrial action since 1964.

GPs in England are poised to vote for collective action in a ballot that closes today.

The industrial dispute is over the new contract for GP services in England; the collective action would start on August 1 and could last for months.

Their union, the British Medical Association (BMA), warned that GPs could limit the number of patients they see each day to 25. 

And they may also choose to stop performing work they are not formally contracted to do and ignore rationing restrictions by  prescribing “whatever is in the patient’s best interest.”

They may also opt out of local data-sharing agreements that are not needed for direct patient care.

Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chairwoman of the BMA’s England general practitioners committee, said: “If it’s done effectively, it’s done collectively and it’s done well, it will bring the NHS to a standstill very quickly — but not for patients: [for] all the NHS admin, the policy-makers who have put in place these decisions that aren’t helping patients.”

Warning that there appears to be a “desire to break general practice,” with three successive contracts impositions over the past three years, she said: “I think we need to again agree a set of principles if you want the NHS to be free at the point of use, universal to all, funded through central taxation.”

The BMA has said the new GP service contract, which will see services given a 1.9 per cent funding increase for 2024-25, means many surgeries will struggle to stay financially viable.

Family doctors launched a formal dispute over the issue in April after a referendum carried out by the union found 99 per cent of 19,000 GPs rejected the contract.

Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr John Puntis said: “GPs are the foundation of NHS services but have been left struggling through falling numbers (1,800 fewer than in 2015), rising demand and inadequate funding.”

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “The Health & Social Care Secretary [Wes Streeting] has met with the chair of the BMA’s GP committee to discuss their priorities.

“However, it is important we plan for all contingencies, in every eventuality, to keep patients safe.”